Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service(74)
About an hour later, my family came home. Everybody fussed over my leg and wished me a happy birthday. Cake and ice cream and cards appeared as if by magic, and a lot of love and care were shown.
Back at work, though, we still needed to finish shooting the episode. So we eventually completed the chase scene by having me sit on a stool and shooting close-ups that showed only my face popping into the frame. I’d be huffing and puffing as if I’d been running. The rest of the episode I’m either sitting at a desk or leaning against a wall. The final two episodes of the season were rewritten slightly so I could take it easier. But as I recovered, I gave those final two shows everything I had.
Years later, in season 7, I was running after a bad guy again. I caught him and slammed him into the side of a truck. Whack—the same baseball bat hit my leg again, only this time my other one. I went down, my body went into shock, and it turned out I had another gastrocnemius tear. I now had a matching set. All nine seasons had physical stuff, and our stunt coordinator always took special care to determine which stunts I should or shouldn’t do, depending on their difficulty. I was fifty-seven, almost fiftyeight when the show finished its run, and though I always tried to keep in shape, the body has its limits. I found most of them.
The end of season 4 and the start of season 5 featured a big two-part show, the first part a real cliff-hanger where a kidnapped Mac Taylor is knocked out and thrown into a car; then the car is dumped into the Hudson River. In the second part, Mac wakes up as the car goes down and escapes just in time. We shot the first part of that scene in a big tank in the San Fernando Valley. The plan was to shoot me inside the car as it slid underneath the water. I’d give the signal to be let out by banging on the car door. A diver with air tanks was stationed just outside my door, and his job was to listen for my signal, then yank the door open for me so I could swim out. Another diver with air tanks would be in the back seat of the car in case anything went wrong. His job was to quickly reach over and give me air in case of any delay.
We did the first take, and everything went smoothly. The director called for a second take. The camera rolled, the car started submerging, and as I slid underneath the water inside the car, I banged on the door, but this time, nothing happened. I banged again. The door still didn’t open. Completely submerged, I could feel the air bursting inside my lungs. I couldn’t see a thing. I fumbled around, trying to reach back to the diver in the back seat so he could hand me air, but I couldn’t find him. I panicked, my lungs throbbing. I lay back against the opposite door, banged hard with my legs, and kicked the door open myself. I was nearly inhaling water by then, but at last I swam out, reached the top, and sucked in a huge lungful of fresh air. Angry and frightened, I swore and shouted. Everybody looked alarmed, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Turned out the diver outside the door hadn’t felt my first two bangs. The diver in the back seat had tried to find me, but everything was happening so quickly, I was already out and up before we connected.
Everybody was highly apologetic. We had worked out the safety precautions beforehand, and the first take had gone smoothly. But it was a fresh reminder to me on those risky shoots of the need to work out every contingency plan beforehand. As for me, takes were over for that scene. We flew to New York and shot the rest of the scene, with me walking out of the actual Hudson River, the car submerging in the background. That moment—and my calf issues—aside, everything went relatively smoothly on set, and I loved coming to work at CSI: NY.
Apart from being artistic director at Steppenwolf, my role as Mac Taylor was the only job I’ve held for a long period. The network stayed solidly behind the show, and I was grateful for this good run. The production team appreciated what I wanted to do for our military and veterans, so they agreed to flexible shooting. As one example, in the 2012 season I had the opportunity to go to Kuwait and give a concert in January. One concert then home. CSI gave me a couple of days off from shooting, so I finished work one night, got on a plane the next morning, and flew to Kuwait City, returning to Camp Arifjan for a concert there the following night. The day I arrived I got in a nap, headed to the airstrip at Arifjan, boarded a Blackhawk, and flew out to Camp Buehring to visit troops. I was there for about three or four hours then jumped on the helo again for the ride back. Next day I visited with more troops, did our sound check, played the concert at night, and then headed to the airport for a late-night flight home. There and back in seventy-two hours. It was a great visit with the troops, although as soon as I returned home I was back on set with a ton of scenes to catch up on. No rest for me that week.
From 2004 until 2013—nine seasons and 197 original episodes in all—I portrayed Detective Mac Taylor on CSI: NY. The show ranked as high as number seventeen on Nielsen and evened out to about ten million viewers per episode, considered quite good. Today, it’s been shown in more than two hundred markets all over the world and continues to run in syndication. Eventually comic books, novels, a video game, and even a slot machine in Vegas came out, all based on the show.
Although at first I didn’t see what a blessing it would be, the series became one of the greatest gifts ever handed to me. Nine seasons on television is a tremendous success, and it gave me resources I never could have imagined. It allowed me the financial and logistical freedom to take good care of my family and continue my mission of supporting the troops. It gave me a greater public platform to spread that message of support. Without the financial blessings that resulted from the series, I never could have done the service work I’m doing today at the level I’m engaged in. The timing of the series was perfect, coming at the exact right moment, and has helped me with the mission I feel I was called to all those years ago. I will always be proud to have portrayed US Marine Corps veteran and 9/11 family member Detective Mac Taylor on CSI: NY.